and this is sound AA advice as regards our long-range thinking and planning.

This does not mean that we should take this too literally

and give absolutely no thought to tomorrow’s needs.

It is absolutely true that tomorrow may never be born but,

on the other hand, it might and, in that event,

a well-filled refrigerator will come in mighty handy.

=======================

Vernon Howard’s SECRETS OF LIFE

“Happiness is present when there is

no difference between the inner

man and the outer man.”

Inspire Yourself, p. 67

=======================

DAILY REFLECTIONS December 7,2016

TRUE AMBITION

True ambition is not what we thought it was. True ambition is the deep desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of God.

— TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, pp. 124-25

During my drinking years, my one and only concern was to have my fellow man think highly of me. My ambition in everything I did was to have the power to be at the top. My inner self kept telling me something else but I couldn’t accept it. I didn’t even allow myself to realize that I wore a mask continually. Finally, when the mask came off and I cried out to the only God I could conceive, the Fellowship of A.A., my group and the Twelve Steps were there. I learned how to change resentments into acceptance, fear into hope and anger into love. I have learned also, through loving without undue expectations, through sharing my concerns and caring for my fellow man, that each day can be joyous and fruitful. I begin and end my day with thanks to God, who has so generously shed His grace on me.

Today I can awaken in Heaven, at Home in my Creator. This brings up a lot of questions from the ego. “What’s special about today? Why not yesterday? Why not five years ago? Why did I have to wait so long? What if it doesn’t happen today?” These simply highlight the emphasis the ego places on the seeming reality of time. In truth, today is no different than any other day. In the eternal now I am free of all suffering. If I’m not experiencing this, then I am choosing against it today.

This lesson reminds me of the movie “Groundhog Day,” in which the main character experiences the same day over and over until he learns its lesson. That is what we are all doing. Every day that we do not experience the serenity, joy and Love of God, we haven’t learned the lesson the day has for us. “We were born for this day” means from the day we were born, the only meaningful goal for us is to let go of our attachment and belief in separation and accept God’s Will for us that we be with Him in Heaven.

Each day we simply repeat the same mistake of believing that we have separated from God. Each day we have the opportunity to make another choice. In truth there only is now, the holy instant in which we remember our Source and our Self, which remains forever one with Its Creator. Today I can accept that every day offers me that same choice, that same opportunity. “I can be free of suffering today.”

Suffering only comes with belief in the false ideas of the ego. Suffering only comes with belief that we are what we could never be in truth. Suffering comes with belief that we have separated from our one Identity in God, which is what the Course calls belief in sin. With belief in sin, or that we really separated, comes guilt and with guilt comes fear of God’s reprisal. Release from suffering comes with release from these false ideas.

Forgiveness means seeing the dream’s unreality and letting go of what never was. Forgiveness means letting go of illusions of separation. In Lesson 193, paragraph 13, Jesus tells us to repeat this often, “I will forgive and this will disappear. To every apprehension, every care, and every form of suffering, repeat these selfsame words. And then you hold the key that opens Heaven’s gate, and brings the Love of God the Father down to earth at last, to raise it up to Heaven.”

It is only holding on to the false ideas of separation that holds the suffering in place. As we are willing to open to the healing perceptions of the Holy Spirit, we are brought to the awareness that the illusions of separation found in this world are not true. An opposite to God could never be true. Time and space could never be true.

As we continue to practice forgiveness with every form of suffering that we find ourselves believing in, we eventually let go of all our false beliefs. We awaken to the truth. We see that all these dreams never really happened. All these dreams of separate individuals, different and alone, are just dreams found within the ego thought system.

As we forgive, we no longer are attracted to make these forms of separation real. We let them go. We awaken to the fact that we are still as God created us. We did not and could not change our reality as an extension of God’s Love. We are still safe in God because we are an eternal Thought in the Mind of God and nothing else.

Letting go of illusions of separation is a lifetime process. Each day we have the opportunity to release ourselves from the bondage of belief in the ego thoughts of separation. Each day we have the opportunity to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, Who leads us Home. The Holy Spirit shows us we never left Heaven. We just dreamed a dream of separation and suffering.